Terrytown Elementary students get early jump on college search

When Terrytown Elementary teacher Tobie Lynn Tranchina was younger, her parents constantly instilled in her the importance of a college education.

The fourth-grade English as a Second Language (ESL) class at Terrytown Elementary poses during field day in their T-shirts that were donated by Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia.

“I grew up with parents who always said ‘You’re going to college,’ not do you want to go to college,” she said. “So, it was always my path.”

Tranchina later realized the same expectation was not a reality for many of her fourth-grade English as a Second Language (ESL) students. So, she endeavored to find a way to show her students that college was an attainable option for them.

“In the fourth grade, one of the things we have to do to prepare for LEAP testing is to be able to find information in a bulk of resources,” Tranchina said. “I thought if I could get colleges to send me different informational materials, the students could look through them to practice their information resource skills and also kind of get their feet wet with looking at colleges.”

Tranchina began emailing dozens of schools in November and asking them to send admissions information for the students. She said she received an overwhelming response, with nearly a dozen colleges agreeing to participate.

Participating schools included out-of-state colleges, such as Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia, Duke University in North Carolina and The University of Southern Mississippi. Local schools included Our Lady of Holy Cross College, Loyola University, Xavier University and the University of New Orleans.

Savannah College of Art and Design was one of the schools who sent in the greatest amount of materials.

“They sent a catalog and a T-shirt for every student in my class,” Tranchina said. “The kids were floored.”

Along with learning about information resources, students were challenged in other areas as well.

“We turned it into a persuasive writing lesson, where they had to look at three different schools and compare tuition, classes, location and extracurricular activities.”

After comparing the schools on a chart in a graphic organizer, the students chose which school they would attend.

“They became the recruiter and they had to write a persuasive essay and tell the other students why they should come to their school,” she said.

Lornie Gelin, who wants to be a doctor and a designer, chose the University of New Orleans as her No. 1 choice.

“At the University of New Orleans, I learned that they have different things that you can learn and it’s a really great college,” she said. “There are a lot of things I see there that I really like.”

Yamaeire Vardas said Savannah College of Art and Design was her top choice.

“When students go over there, they can find out what is their specialty,” she said. “They can design furniture, they can draw and they can use the computer to draw. I chose SCAD because I get creative sometimes and I like to draw.”

Vardas said along with the art classes the school offers, she was also impressed with the financial aid that’s offered.

“The prices were awfully high, but I thought the school would be good because 99 percent of the people who go there get scholarships,” she said. “So, I thought it would be a great college.”

Tranchina said the project exposed the students to a different aspect of college.

“When we started the lesson, I talked to the kids about what they wanted to be; some said they wanted to play basketball at LSU,” she said. “So, I said ‘You can’t major in basketball, let’s look at the schools and see what you can do.’ The kids were surprised to learn they could major in things such as criminal science.”

She said the students showed great interest in the project and she believes it will have a positive impact on them.

“They saw that there are a lot of careers that they can actually attain,” Tranchina said. “If they can start thinking like this now, at 10 years old, and have a positive mentality towards college, then it becomes a lot easier for them to reach their goals.”